Here is the final Knuckles level. I think the fight between Rouge and
Knuckles will be quite.interesting. It's gonna be the first of the really
cool final battles, with an ending so unexpected you'll have to see it to
believe it. This may very well be the longest fight in the story, though
not necessarily the most important or intense. Oh, and I should mention the
Dark Story is going to be incredible. You forget the character I have
created to replace Shadow on the Dark side. I think you will find Scales to
be a match and good replacement for our favorite hedgehog.
Disclaimer: Ugh.
Day X, 11:10 PM
Knuckles looked around him. He had followed the weak signal from the emerald shards to this place in the asteroid field. He was on a platform based on top of a hollowed out giant meteor. There were lots of big boxes, platforms, and huge abandoned construction vehicles lying about. In the middle of the platform was another platform, raising out of the ground. On top of that platform was a metal foundation with several sealed storage bays. On top of the foundation was what looked like an unfinished tower, nothing but a framework of girders. The floor of the tower looked like it could unfold. There were lots of floating platforms all over the place, and a metal tower from the colony jutting down over the meteor. There were plenty of floating catwalks and blue storage containers. All in all, this was going to be a difficult place to search through. "Well, I'd better get going." Knuckles said to himself. "Those Master Emerald pieces aren't going to find themselves."
Stage 11: Meteor Herd. Mission: Find three pieces of the Master Emerald.
Knuckles jumped down from his initial platform and started looking around. He climbed up to the ledge around the central tower and started walking around it. His Chaos sense went off as he neared one of the closed storage bays. He rammed his fists into the door, doing no damage. He tried to dig into the surface, but it was too strong. Knuckles sat down, trying to figure out a solution for this. Looking outward, he noticed a giant crate right across from the hatch for the cargo bay. On top of the crate was a hollowed out asteroid, with some metal charges in it. Knuckles glided over to the crate, climbed up it, and stood behind the asteroid. Thanking God for the lesser gravity and his already incredible strength, Knuckles picked up the space rock and threw it at the door, smashing it in. Knuckles glided back to the platform, climbed up, and went through the crumpled hatch. Lying in front of the smashed door and asteroid was a shard of the Master Emerald. Knuckles picked it up and left, beginning the search for more Emeralds. He climbed up the platform to the unfinished building. Thinking he could get a good view from the top, he climbed up one of the girders, reaching the top of the building. He noticed a small platform with a spring on it floating above a girder going across the middle of the unfinished building. He walked over and tried to jump onto the platform, not able to get high enough. He got an idea and leaped up with a spiral uppercut, getting high enough to grab on to the side of the platform and climb up, jumping off the spring. He was propelled into the air and landed on a platform with a rocket in the middle and a narrow walkway leading away from the main section. The walkway had a spring on it. His Emerald sense went off, faintly. Knuckles looked up and saw a piece of the Emerald floating high in the air. He looked at the spring and saw it was aimed at another spring attached to a small meteor, aiming somewhere above the Emerald shard. Knuckles ran onto the walkway and onto the spring, bouncing off the second spring, and going high into the air. He started gliding and turned around and around, grabbing the Emerald shard in midair. He continued gliding and landed back on the platform. He grabbed the rocket and was carried high up as it lifted off. When he let go, he landed on a platform with another rocket. It lifted him all the way up to the side of the tower jutting from the surface of the colony. He let go and fell, gliding and grabbing onto the wall. He started shimmying around the side of the tower, reaching a ledge with a spring and a Phoenix, a variation of the Hornet series. He destroyed the Phoenix before it could shoot him, and was surprised when his Emerald sense started going off again. He looked up and saw the third piece of the Master Emerald floating high up. Knuckles saw a spring at the edge of the platform. He jumped onto it and was launched into the air. He cursed as his momentum carried him up past the shard. He broke into a glide, turning down and through the sky until he grabbed the third piece of the Emerald.
(STAGE CLEAR. RANK A.)
Knuckles started to congratulate himself, before remembering he was still missing half of the pieces of the Master Emerald. Three were still unaccounted for, and the other three were with that attractive.er, he meant thieving bat girl. His Emerald senses went off again. Surprised, he looked around, seeing nothing. Then he looked off the end of his ledge, down at the big meteor below. His eyes widened as he saw a small white object gliding towards the center of the meteor. He dropped off the ledge, falling down, down towards the meteor. He broke into a glide to avoid some platforms in his path, then kept falling again, eventually getting close to the building. He glided again, stopping and landing on a girder. Rouge was on the other end of the girder, just now seeing him. A smile came onto her face. "Well, it's been a while since we've last seen each other, isn't it." she paused. "What was your name again?" "Knuckles. I haven't forgotten your name, Rouge." Said the echidna. Rouge frowned, which strangely enough Knuckles thought looked wrong on her. "Hey, you never told me your name! How can I be expected to remember something I didn't know?" Knuckles thought a moment. "Good point. I see you haven't forgotten about the Master Emerald." He said, pointing to her, sensing the energy from the missing Master Emerald shards. "Neither have you. So, are you going to hand the missing pieces over?" Rouge asked. Knuckles snorted. "No way! You hand the missing pieces over!"
"No, you!" "You!" "You!" "You!" "You!" "You!" "Stop!" yelled Rouge. "This isn't getting us anywhere. How about this, we fight each other for the Master Emerald. Whoever beats the other gets the six shards he or she is holding. Sound fair?" Knuckles nodded. "As long as you don't cheat." Rouge grinned, her two vampiric fangs showing. "I may be a thief, but I do have honor! I don't plan on cheating." "Then let's do this." Said Knuckles, tilting his head to the side, indicating they jump down to the floor of the building. "Let's." agreed Rouge. They jumped off the girder and landed in the center of the tower of girders, facing each other in a battle stance.
ROUGE
Knuckles and Rouge ran at each other. Knuckles tried to nail her with a punch, but she ducked and hit him in the chest with a kick that sent him reeling. He was surprised that she had been able to kick that hard! As she ran towards him, Knuckles held his fists out, planning to ram them into her head as she tried to kick him. She jumped over him and came downward in a drill drive, hurting him more than the kick! As Knuckles tried to get up, Rouge kicked him, sending him rolling across the floor. She came towards him again. Knuckles grunted and got up. As Rouge tried to give him another kick, he ducked around the swing and grabbed her leg. As she started to unbalance, startled, Knuckles threw her over his shoulder, sending her into a girder. She winced and got up. He ran towards her, fists ready. Rouge turned around and started climbing up the side of the girder. Knuckles grabbed on to the girder and started climbing after her. When she noticed he was only a few feet underneath her, she smiled and let go. She immediately went into a drill drive, knocking Knuckles off of the girder and sending him smashing to the ground. As he moaned and started to get up, Rouge shot down from above in another drill drive, her own spiked knuckles driving into the echidna's stomach. He groaned and punched upwards, hitting her in the face. She gasped and flipped off of him. Knuckles quickly got up and hit her from behind, sending her several feet back. He came racing towards her. Rouge glared and got ready. When he swung his fists, Rouge swung a leg. The punch and kick connected with each other, deflecting with enough force to send both fighters several yards away from each other. As they started charging for each other again, the ground suddenly opened up, revealing a shaft going straight into the molten core of the giant meteor. As the echidna and bat started to fall, the antigravity generators running up half the tower's height switched on, sending both of them reeling into the air. As Rouge floundered, trying to "swim" to a girder, Knuckles flipped over to a girder, as he was closer to the edge when the floor had opened up. He climbed a little way up the girder and launched off, gliding above Rouge, who was almost to one of the horizontal girders. He spun into a drill drive, hitting her while she was vulnerable. She cried out and kicked him off of her, sending him into the antigravity field. She pulled herself onto the girder, ran along its length, and climbed up a vertical girder. As Knuckles started to get close to one of the horizontal girders, she jumped off the girder and started to glide over to him. As she positioned herself right above him, Knuckles realized what she was doing and tried to get to the girder as fast as possible. Just as she started her drill drive, the floor closed up again and the antigravity cut off. Knuckles had not yet reached the girder and started to fall. This was made worse when Rouge slammed into him from above with the Drill Drive, sending him to the ground faster than before and inflicting constant damage while doing so. He hit the ground hard, hurting more than before due to the impact from Rouge's claws and the hard metal floor. But if Knuckles was one thing, it's resilient, and he punched Rouge off of him and got up. She raced towards him, starting to make a kick. Knuckles ducked beneath the swing and shot up around the leg, hitting her with a spiral uppercut. She fell away, hurt. She felt her jaw; assuring herself it wasn't broken. Knuckles took advantage of her momentary pause and punched her in the gut. He followed this up with an uppercut and a three-hit combo. She staggered back, obviously hurting. Knuckles ran towards her again. Rouge suddenly dropped to the ground and sweeped out with her legs, knocking Knuckles off his feet. She got up and kicked him in the sides, sending him rolling over the floor. He got up before she could come over. She smirked at him as he winced, clutching his ribs. "That'll teach you not to hurt a lady!" she said. "What kind of lady goes around stealing jewels, anyway?" Knuckle asked angrily. "I'll have you know that it has been a tradition in my family for generations! The eldest daughter always becomes a jewel thief, inheriting the treasure senses of her mother and skill at heists!" Rouge responded indignantly. Knuckles blinked. "Really? The same thing sort of works in my family. The first boy of his generation inherits his dad's treasure sense and job as Guardian of the Master Emerald." Rouge couldn't help smiling again. "So you could say we have a lot in common, don't we?" "You just keep thinking that, bat girl!" Knuckles said, running towards her. As she charged at him, the floor opened once more. "Oh, crap!" "Not agaaaaaaaaiiiiiiinnnnnnnnn!" yelled Rouge as the antigravity sent them shooting upwards. They both swam through the air, pulling themselves up on the same girder. "I've had enough of this! Power Flash!" shouted Knuckles. There was a flash of bright light, and Rouge screamed, clutching her eyes in pain, temporarily blinded. Knuckles took advantage of this and ran forward, unleashing multiple punches on the bat while she couldn't see. As he was about to land a crippling blow to her chin, Rouge's sight recovered and she delivered a tremendous kick to the spot between his legs. Knuckles' mouth fell open, his eyes bulging. He fell to the ground, wheezing. Rouge delivered about a dozen crushing kicks to the fallen echidna, knocking him off of the girder just as the floor started to close. She jumped off the girder after him as the antigravity turned off, smashing into him with a Drill Drive and sending both of them crashing to the ground. Knuckles knocked her off. He was really getting peeved, and kind of impressed. Before Rouge could put up a defense, Knuckles let loose a flurry of punches, each hitting and causing a lot of pain for the thief. She flipped away, holding her stomach. "You think you're so tough? Then take this! Nightmare Shock!" Knuckles was suddenly paralyzed in fear as every nightmare, fear or misgiving he ever had raced from his subconscious, forcing him to relive every moment of terror or discomfort he had ever experienced. He screamed and clutched his head. Rouge ran up to him and hit him with kick after kick, not stopping even when he had recovered from her attack. Knuckles grabbed her foot and threw her over his shoulder as he had before. Rouge got into a stance. Knuckles spun around and did the same. They both let out a punch and kick at the same time, connecting with each other's jaw. The force from the blow to either of them caused them to stagger back, panting.
Knuckles could vaguely feel that his entire body was hurting. He tuned out the pain, focusing on his duty. He couldn't believe that Rouge had withstood all of his attacks. Every enemy that he had ever fought before, even Chaos, had never come this close to beating him. She had the same strength as he did. She was truly a worthy match. And Knuckles couldn't help noticing for the first time how beautiful she was, even tired and bloody as she was now. He snapped out of this moment of observation. What was he thinking? He had to get the pieces of the Master Emerald from her! He turned around and ran for the nearest girder. Rouge did the same thing. Both grabbed onto the girders and started climbing, higher and higher, until they were at the top level of the building. As they reached the top, the floor opened again. They were too high to be affected, but it added an interesting effect to the scene. The two treasure hunters slowly ran around the top girders, meeting each other on the single girder over the middle of the building. They stopped, facing each other. Both were exhausted, feeling like they couldn't take another step without collapsing. Knuckles spoke up. "I have a proposition." he managed to say. "What?" asked Rouge. "We're both severely weakened. One more attack should finish at least one of us off. So I propose we end this battle with one final attack, each of us using our strongest technique. Whoever is left standing wins custody of the Emerald. Sound good?" he asked. She nodded breathlessly. "Yeah, sounds good." "Then let's do this." He raised his arms, gathering what little strength he had left. A ball of yellow electricity gathered above him, crackling and growing in size. Rouge put one foot behind her and twisted her waist, holding her hands cupped and at her hip level. A mass of darkness began to collect in her palms. Knuckles finished charging the attack, the ball of electricity the size of his head. "Thunder Arrow!" The ball shot a bolt of yellow energy with an arrowhead at Rouge. Rouge finished charging the attack, the dark mass filling her cupped hands completely. She swung her waist to face the front, flinging her cupped hands outward. "Black Wave!" The mass shot at Knuckles in the form of a ring of darkness. The two attacks hit their intended victims at the same time. The two hunters screamed in pain and fell over, unconscious.
Knuckles groaned in pain and woke up. He regretted it, every part of his body suddenly feeling like Hell. He struggled to his feet and suddenly realized he was missing something. Despair settled over him. The pieces of the Master Emerald were gone. His shoulders sagged. "Why so glum?" asked Rouge. Knuckles looked up in surprise. Rouge was still there. She had obviously gotten up before him and taken the shards, so why was she still here? "It was a good fight, you almost won. Why are you so sad about losing?" Knuckles shook his head "It-it's nothing. Go. You have all twelve pieces. Take them and leave. You've proven yourself to be a far worthier guardian of the Master Emerald then I ever could be. Just." He looked up. "Just take better care of it than I did, okay?" Rouge looked at him confused. "I don't understand. What are you going on about? It's just another jewel, albeit the biggest one on the planet. Why are you so depressed about not getting your rock back?" Knuckles stared at Rouge, surprised. "You mean you don't know?" "Know what?" "Why the Master Emerald is so important to me, to my race?" "No, I just know it's the largest gemstone in the world and has some weird powers." Knuckles shook his head, dismayed. "I don't believe it. You really don't know." "Know what?" asked Rouge, getting a little frustrated. Knuckles looked her straight in the eye. "The Master Emerald has been protected by the Echidna clan of the Crescent for thousands of years, ever since it was brought into being by the deity Chaos. After a rival clan of echidna tried to take the Master, Super and Chaos Emeralds from the clan by force, resulting in the deaths of many Chao and an enraged god of destruction, the princess of that clan, Tikal, had to seal herself and Chaos into the Master Emerald to protect everyone from the rampaging deity. Because of the deaths Chaos had caused due to the invasion by the rival clan, my ancestors used the power of the Master Emerald to raise their land into the clouds, dubbing it Angel Island. The Chaos Emeralds were scattered around the globe as they flew around the world, ensuring they would be protected from evil. To keep the Master Emerald from being taken by those wishing to covet its power, a Guardian was appointed to protect the Emerald for all his days. This tradition has carried on into modern times, leaving me in charge of guarding the Master Emerald after my father's death. Without the Emerald, the island can no longer fly and falls to the ground, usually in the ocean, and becomes a normal island. That would be fine, were it not for the tradition." He sighed. "But it seems that with my failure to take back the shards from you, I have broken that tradition. Angel Island will remain earthbound forevermore. Take the Emerald. Do with it what you will." Rouge looked at Knuckles for a moment, trying to sort some things through. Finally, she made a decision. She pulled the bag she had been using to contain the Emerald pieces and dumped its contents out at Knuckles' feet. He looked at the pieces then at Rouge, amazed. "Why-" "Because I don't want to ruin anyone's life or way of life. The Emerald belongs to your race, Knuckles. I have plenty of other jewels, anyway." She gestured at the pieces. "Go on. You said you could fix the thing. Do it." Still amazed that she had actually given up her prize, Knuckles gathered the pieces together and started assembling them, forming the massive jewel in seconds. It glowed brightly, complete at last. Knuckles put his hand on the Master Emerald and it shrunk to the size of a Super Emerald. He placed it in his dimension pocket. He looked at Rouge, extremely grateful. "Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me." He paused, scratching the back of his head. "I'm, uh, sorry if I hurt you. Is there any way I can make up for the brutality I showed in the fight?" Rouge took a step forward. "There is one way." She said mysteriously. "Oh? Wha-" Rouge grabbed him and pulled him close, giving him a passionate kiss on the lips. Knuckles found himself unable to break away, nor really wanting to do so. So he enjoyed it, returning the kiss. After a full minute, Rouge broke away from him and pressed a piece of paper into his hand. She whispered, "See you later." Into his ear, kissed him on the cheek, and headed off, gliding away. Knuckles stood there for another minute, stunned by what had just happened. When he finally came to his senses, he looked at the piece of paper. It had her phone number written on it.
There! I have completed this chapter after a couple of hours of work! How is it? I bet you didn't expect something like THIS to happen, did you? Next time will be the second to last chapter in the Hero Story. I hope you like it, and what's coming next. Please don't forget to review.
Day X, 11:10 PM
Knuckles looked around him. He had followed the weak signal from the emerald shards to this place in the asteroid field. He was on a platform based on top of a hollowed out giant meteor. There were lots of big boxes, platforms, and huge abandoned construction vehicles lying about. In the middle of the platform was another platform, raising out of the ground. On top of that platform was a metal foundation with several sealed storage bays. On top of the foundation was what looked like an unfinished tower, nothing but a framework of girders. The floor of the tower looked like it could unfold. There were lots of floating platforms all over the place, and a metal tower from the colony jutting down over the meteor. There were plenty of floating catwalks and blue storage containers. All in all, this was going to be a difficult place to search through. "Well, I'd better get going." Knuckles said to himself. "Those Master Emerald pieces aren't going to find themselves."
Stage 11: Meteor Herd. Mission: Find three pieces of the Master Emerald.
Knuckles jumped down from his initial platform and started looking around. He climbed up to the ledge around the central tower and started walking around it. His Chaos sense went off as he neared one of the closed storage bays. He rammed his fists into the door, doing no damage. He tried to dig into the surface, but it was too strong. Knuckles sat down, trying to figure out a solution for this. Looking outward, he noticed a giant crate right across from the hatch for the cargo bay. On top of the crate was a hollowed out asteroid, with some metal charges in it. Knuckles glided over to the crate, climbed up it, and stood behind the asteroid. Thanking God for the lesser gravity and his already incredible strength, Knuckles picked up the space rock and threw it at the door, smashing it in. Knuckles glided back to the platform, climbed up, and went through the crumpled hatch. Lying in front of the smashed door and asteroid was a shard of the Master Emerald. Knuckles picked it up and left, beginning the search for more Emeralds. He climbed up the platform to the unfinished building. Thinking he could get a good view from the top, he climbed up one of the girders, reaching the top of the building. He noticed a small platform with a spring on it floating above a girder going across the middle of the unfinished building. He walked over and tried to jump onto the platform, not able to get high enough. He got an idea and leaped up with a spiral uppercut, getting high enough to grab on to the side of the platform and climb up, jumping off the spring. He was propelled into the air and landed on a platform with a rocket in the middle and a narrow walkway leading away from the main section. The walkway had a spring on it. His Emerald sense went off, faintly. Knuckles looked up and saw a piece of the Emerald floating high in the air. He looked at the spring and saw it was aimed at another spring attached to a small meteor, aiming somewhere above the Emerald shard. Knuckles ran onto the walkway and onto the spring, bouncing off the second spring, and going high into the air. He started gliding and turned around and around, grabbing the Emerald shard in midair. He continued gliding and landed back on the platform. He grabbed the rocket and was carried high up as it lifted off. When he let go, he landed on a platform with another rocket. It lifted him all the way up to the side of the tower jutting from the surface of the colony. He let go and fell, gliding and grabbing onto the wall. He started shimmying around the side of the tower, reaching a ledge with a spring and a Phoenix, a variation of the Hornet series. He destroyed the Phoenix before it could shoot him, and was surprised when his Emerald sense started going off again. He looked up and saw the third piece of the Master Emerald floating high up. Knuckles saw a spring at the edge of the platform. He jumped onto it and was launched into the air. He cursed as his momentum carried him up past the shard. He broke into a glide, turning down and through the sky until he grabbed the third piece of the Emerald.
(STAGE CLEAR. RANK A.)
Knuckles started to congratulate himself, before remembering he was still missing half of the pieces of the Master Emerald. Three were still unaccounted for, and the other three were with that attractive.er, he meant thieving bat girl. His Emerald senses went off again. Surprised, he looked around, seeing nothing. Then he looked off the end of his ledge, down at the big meteor below. His eyes widened as he saw a small white object gliding towards the center of the meteor. He dropped off the ledge, falling down, down towards the meteor. He broke into a glide to avoid some platforms in his path, then kept falling again, eventually getting close to the building. He glided again, stopping and landing on a girder. Rouge was on the other end of the girder, just now seeing him. A smile came onto her face. "Well, it's been a while since we've last seen each other, isn't it." she paused. "What was your name again?" "Knuckles. I haven't forgotten your name, Rouge." Said the echidna. Rouge frowned, which strangely enough Knuckles thought looked wrong on her. "Hey, you never told me your name! How can I be expected to remember something I didn't know?" Knuckles thought a moment. "Good point. I see you haven't forgotten about the Master Emerald." He said, pointing to her, sensing the energy from the missing Master Emerald shards. "Neither have you. So, are you going to hand the missing pieces over?" Rouge asked. Knuckles snorted. "No way! You hand the missing pieces over!"
"No, you!" "You!" "You!" "You!" "You!" "You!" "Stop!" yelled Rouge. "This isn't getting us anywhere. How about this, we fight each other for the Master Emerald. Whoever beats the other gets the six shards he or she is holding. Sound fair?" Knuckles nodded. "As long as you don't cheat." Rouge grinned, her two vampiric fangs showing. "I may be a thief, but I do have honor! I don't plan on cheating." "Then let's do this." Said Knuckles, tilting his head to the side, indicating they jump down to the floor of the building. "Let's." agreed Rouge. They jumped off the girder and landed in the center of the tower of girders, facing each other in a battle stance.
ROUGE
Knuckles and Rouge ran at each other. Knuckles tried to nail her with a punch, but she ducked and hit him in the chest with a kick that sent him reeling. He was surprised that she had been able to kick that hard! As she ran towards him, Knuckles held his fists out, planning to ram them into her head as she tried to kick him. She jumped over him and came downward in a drill drive, hurting him more than the kick! As Knuckles tried to get up, Rouge kicked him, sending him rolling across the floor. She came towards him again. Knuckles grunted and got up. As Rouge tried to give him another kick, he ducked around the swing and grabbed her leg. As she started to unbalance, startled, Knuckles threw her over his shoulder, sending her into a girder. She winced and got up. He ran towards her, fists ready. Rouge turned around and started climbing up the side of the girder. Knuckles grabbed on to the girder and started climbing after her. When she noticed he was only a few feet underneath her, she smiled and let go. She immediately went into a drill drive, knocking Knuckles off of the girder and sending him smashing to the ground. As he moaned and started to get up, Rouge shot down from above in another drill drive, her own spiked knuckles driving into the echidna's stomach. He groaned and punched upwards, hitting her in the face. She gasped and flipped off of him. Knuckles quickly got up and hit her from behind, sending her several feet back. He came racing towards her. Rouge glared and got ready. When he swung his fists, Rouge swung a leg. The punch and kick connected with each other, deflecting with enough force to send both fighters several yards away from each other. As they started charging for each other again, the ground suddenly opened up, revealing a shaft going straight into the molten core of the giant meteor. As the echidna and bat started to fall, the antigravity generators running up half the tower's height switched on, sending both of them reeling into the air. As Rouge floundered, trying to "swim" to a girder, Knuckles flipped over to a girder, as he was closer to the edge when the floor had opened up. He climbed a little way up the girder and launched off, gliding above Rouge, who was almost to one of the horizontal girders. He spun into a drill drive, hitting her while she was vulnerable. She cried out and kicked him off of her, sending him into the antigravity field. She pulled herself onto the girder, ran along its length, and climbed up a vertical girder. As Knuckles started to get close to one of the horizontal girders, she jumped off the girder and started to glide over to him. As she positioned herself right above him, Knuckles realized what she was doing and tried to get to the girder as fast as possible. Just as she started her drill drive, the floor closed up again and the antigravity cut off. Knuckles had not yet reached the girder and started to fall. This was made worse when Rouge slammed into him from above with the Drill Drive, sending him to the ground faster than before and inflicting constant damage while doing so. He hit the ground hard, hurting more than before due to the impact from Rouge's claws and the hard metal floor. But if Knuckles was one thing, it's resilient, and he punched Rouge off of him and got up. She raced towards him, starting to make a kick. Knuckles ducked beneath the swing and shot up around the leg, hitting her with a spiral uppercut. She fell away, hurt. She felt her jaw; assuring herself it wasn't broken. Knuckles took advantage of her momentary pause and punched her in the gut. He followed this up with an uppercut and a three-hit combo. She staggered back, obviously hurting. Knuckles ran towards her again. Rouge suddenly dropped to the ground and sweeped out with her legs, knocking Knuckles off his feet. She got up and kicked him in the sides, sending him rolling over the floor. He got up before she could come over. She smirked at him as he winced, clutching his ribs. "That'll teach you not to hurt a lady!" she said. "What kind of lady goes around stealing jewels, anyway?" Knuckle asked angrily. "I'll have you know that it has been a tradition in my family for generations! The eldest daughter always becomes a jewel thief, inheriting the treasure senses of her mother and skill at heists!" Rouge responded indignantly. Knuckles blinked. "Really? The same thing sort of works in my family. The first boy of his generation inherits his dad's treasure sense and job as Guardian of the Master Emerald." Rouge couldn't help smiling again. "So you could say we have a lot in common, don't we?" "You just keep thinking that, bat girl!" Knuckles said, running towards her. As she charged at him, the floor opened once more. "Oh, crap!" "Not agaaaaaaaaiiiiiiinnnnnnnnn!" yelled Rouge as the antigravity sent them shooting upwards. They both swam through the air, pulling themselves up on the same girder. "I've had enough of this! Power Flash!" shouted Knuckles. There was a flash of bright light, and Rouge screamed, clutching her eyes in pain, temporarily blinded. Knuckles took advantage of this and ran forward, unleashing multiple punches on the bat while she couldn't see. As he was about to land a crippling blow to her chin, Rouge's sight recovered and she delivered a tremendous kick to the spot between his legs. Knuckles' mouth fell open, his eyes bulging. He fell to the ground, wheezing. Rouge delivered about a dozen crushing kicks to the fallen echidna, knocking him off of the girder just as the floor started to close. She jumped off the girder after him as the antigravity turned off, smashing into him with a Drill Drive and sending both of them crashing to the ground. Knuckles knocked her off. He was really getting peeved, and kind of impressed. Before Rouge could put up a defense, Knuckles let loose a flurry of punches, each hitting and causing a lot of pain for the thief. She flipped away, holding her stomach. "You think you're so tough? Then take this! Nightmare Shock!" Knuckles was suddenly paralyzed in fear as every nightmare, fear or misgiving he ever had raced from his subconscious, forcing him to relive every moment of terror or discomfort he had ever experienced. He screamed and clutched his head. Rouge ran up to him and hit him with kick after kick, not stopping even when he had recovered from her attack. Knuckles grabbed her foot and threw her over his shoulder as he had before. Rouge got into a stance. Knuckles spun around and did the same. They both let out a punch and kick at the same time, connecting with each other's jaw. The force from the blow to either of them caused them to stagger back, panting.
Knuckles could vaguely feel that his entire body was hurting. He tuned out the pain, focusing on his duty. He couldn't believe that Rouge had withstood all of his attacks. Every enemy that he had ever fought before, even Chaos, had never come this close to beating him. She had the same strength as he did. She was truly a worthy match. And Knuckles couldn't help noticing for the first time how beautiful she was, even tired and bloody as she was now. He snapped out of this moment of observation. What was he thinking? He had to get the pieces of the Master Emerald from her! He turned around and ran for the nearest girder. Rouge did the same thing. Both grabbed onto the girders and started climbing, higher and higher, until they were at the top level of the building. As they reached the top, the floor opened again. They were too high to be affected, but it added an interesting effect to the scene. The two treasure hunters slowly ran around the top girders, meeting each other on the single girder over the middle of the building. They stopped, facing each other. Both were exhausted, feeling like they couldn't take another step without collapsing. Knuckles spoke up. "I have a proposition." he managed to say. "What?" asked Rouge. "We're both severely weakened. One more attack should finish at least one of us off. So I propose we end this battle with one final attack, each of us using our strongest technique. Whoever is left standing wins custody of the Emerald. Sound good?" he asked. She nodded breathlessly. "Yeah, sounds good." "Then let's do this." He raised his arms, gathering what little strength he had left. A ball of yellow electricity gathered above him, crackling and growing in size. Rouge put one foot behind her and twisted her waist, holding her hands cupped and at her hip level. A mass of darkness began to collect in her palms. Knuckles finished charging the attack, the ball of electricity the size of his head. "Thunder Arrow!" The ball shot a bolt of yellow energy with an arrowhead at Rouge. Rouge finished charging the attack, the dark mass filling her cupped hands completely. She swung her waist to face the front, flinging her cupped hands outward. "Black Wave!" The mass shot at Knuckles in the form of a ring of darkness. The two attacks hit their intended victims at the same time. The two hunters screamed in pain and fell over, unconscious.
Knuckles groaned in pain and woke up. He regretted it, every part of his body suddenly feeling like Hell. He struggled to his feet and suddenly realized he was missing something. Despair settled over him. The pieces of the Master Emerald were gone. His shoulders sagged. "Why so glum?" asked Rouge. Knuckles looked up in surprise. Rouge was still there. She had obviously gotten up before him and taken the shards, so why was she still here? "It was a good fight, you almost won. Why are you so sad about losing?" Knuckles shook his head "It-it's nothing. Go. You have all twelve pieces. Take them and leave. You've proven yourself to be a far worthier guardian of the Master Emerald then I ever could be. Just." He looked up. "Just take better care of it than I did, okay?" Rouge looked at him confused. "I don't understand. What are you going on about? It's just another jewel, albeit the biggest one on the planet. Why are you so depressed about not getting your rock back?" Knuckles stared at Rouge, surprised. "You mean you don't know?" "Know what?" "Why the Master Emerald is so important to me, to my race?" "No, I just know it's the largest gemstone in the world and has some weird powers." Knuckles shook his head, dismayed. "I don't believe it. You really don't know." "Know what?" asked Rouge, getting a little frustrated. Knuckles looked her straight in the eye. "The Master Emerald has been protected by the Echidna clan of the Crescent for thousands of years, ever since it was brought into being by the deity Chaos. After a rival clan of echidna tried to take the Master, Super and Chaos Emeralds from the clan by force, resulting in the deaths of many Chao and an enraged god of destruction, the princess of that clan, Tikal, had to seal herself and Chaos into the Master Emerald to protect everyone from the rampaging deity. Because of the deaths Chaos had caused due to the invasion by the rival clan, my ancestors used the power of the Master Emerald to raise their land into the clouds, dubbing it Angel Island. The Chaos Emeralds were scattered around the globe as they flew around the world, ensuring they would be protected from evil. To keep the Master Emerald from being taken by those wishing to covet its power, a Guardian was appointed to protect the Emerald for all his days. This tradition has carried on into modern times, leaving me in charge of guarding the Master Emerald after my father's death. Without the Emerald, the island can no longer fly and falls to the ground, usually in the ocean, and becomes a normal island. That would be fine, were it not for the tradition." He sighed. "But it seems that with my failure to take back the shards from you, I have broken that tradition. Angel Island will remain earthbound forevermore. Take the Emerald. Do with it what you will." Rouge looked at Knuckles for a moment, trying to sort some things through. Finally, she made a decision. She pulled the bag she had been using to contain the Emerald pieces and dumped its contents out at Knuckles' feet. He looked at the pieces then at Rouge, amazed. "Why-" "Because I don't want to ruin anyone's life or way of life. The Emerald belongs to your race, Knuckles. I have plenty of other jewels, anyway." She gestured at the pieces. "Go on. You said you could fix the thing. Do it." Still amazed that she had actually given up her prize, Knuckles gathered the pieces together and started assembling them, forming the massive jewel in seconds. It glowed brightly, complete at last. Knuckles put his hand on the Master Emerald and it shrunk to the size of a Super Emerald. He placed it in his dimension pocket. He looked at Rouge, extremely grateful. "Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me." He paused, scratching the back of his head. "I'm, uh, sorry if I hurt you. Is there any way I can make up for the brutality I showed in the fight?" Rouge took a step forward. "There is one way." She said mysteriously. "Oh? Wha-" Rouge grabbed him and pulled him close, giving him a passionate kiss on the lips. Knuckles found himself unable to break away, nor really wanting to do so. So he enjoyed it, returning the kiss. After a full minute, Rouge broke away from him and pressed a piece of paper into his hand. She whispered, "See you later." Into his ear, kissed him on the cheek, and headed off, gliding away. Knuckles stood there for another minute, stunned by what had just happened. When he finally came to his senses, he looked at the piece of paper. It had her phone number written on it.
There! I have completed this chapter after a couple of hours of work! How is it? I bet you didn't expect something like THIS to happen, did you? Next time will be the second to last chapter in the Hero Story. I hope you like it, and what's coming next. Please don't forget to review.